Silhouette Art

Silhouettes!!
They are in my opinion the cutest kid art ever. I love my sons face.  His chin and cheeks, little nose? They are just the cutest shape.  Maybe its a mom thing? Maybe I'm just weird.

Anyways, I look for ideas for christmas presents on pinterest, literally all year round.  Yes I do try to start christmas presents early, but I also sometimes double up my christmas board as a birthday present board. Kind of. I usually try the christmas presents as birthday presents that way I know what is easiest to whip out in case I run out of time towards the end of the holidays (my husband has waaay to big of a family).

So my moms 50th birthday was today and one of the presents I made for her was a silouhette plaque of her lovely little first and only grandson.

I found the tutorial at ediTORIal.  Its Tori Spellings blog, which I didn't realize until like the 18th time I revisited the post. But once I realized it, it made the name so clever.

So now! The How-To

Start out by taking a profile picture. I turned on the TV for this, totally engaged and totally still enough for me to take a photo from multiple angles to get the right silhouette.

On the blog I followed she printed out the picture on her printer and painted it to make the black outline.  I don't have the luck of having a printer (sad face) so I printed it out as an 8x10 at walgreens.

Then I cut just the silhouette shape I wanted out of the picture.

Instead of painting the picture cut out black, I traced it on to black cardstock and saved the picture as a future template (Thinking ahead for christmas :)! )

I got a wooden plaque at Micheals 

I let trae pick out what color to paint it

Although I prefer hobby lobby, It was sunday :(

first world problems.

so then I used modpodge to put the silhouette on the board

and modpodge over the entire thing, cutout and the rest of the board, just for a nice seal.

REMEMBER!!!!!!!: 

When you modpodge underneath the paper and stick it to the board

use a library card, or something to get out the air bubbles.

I don't know how common knowledge that is, but I forget to in every single project I do :(

maybe I use too much or something, but it breaks my heart.

So here is the final product. super cute.

I know she'll love it, but the air bubbles.. they're driving me crazy.

UPDATE: The Airbubbles go away! I've done this project 5 times now, every time even when I use a card the air bubbles pop up, but after it dries they calm back down and look perfect :)

And now I know what to do different to whip out a few for grandparents this holiday season :)

Happy birthday Nana!

Follow my Pinterest Obesession

Birth Stats Subway Art

Wall Art

So we have some very close family friends that have an ADORABLE little guy about to turn 1 on the 27th of this month.  He has cousins that are a little older so he has a ton of hand me downs.  So as far as birthday present ideas goes I didn't want to load them up with more of what they already had.

At first she was saying she was going to ask for books to build up his library.  Since they're in Texas and I'm in Arizona, I didn't really have any idea of the books he already had.  So I turned to pinterest. 

And found this!  Subway art with babies birth stats.  I love this idea.  Especially for kids with so much stuff, and at one year old, they care way more about the wrapping paper than whats in it.

As a parent, I would much rather have this than a noisy toy.

This is the layout of info I chose.

I found the inspiration at A Kitchen Table for Two

She did it using iron on paper, but since my brother has photoshop I figured it would be easier to type up and print out instead.

Since NO WHERE does instant 12x12 prints, I printed it out on 11x14 at walgreens

the print (after a 33% off enlargements coupon) was about $8 

The 12x12 canvas I already had 

but was out of a 6 pack at hobby lobby that I had bought when it was 1/2 off one week.

All I did was mod podge the back of the picture, and the front of the canvas then stick them together

(Make sure you run some kind of card across to get out bubbles, it will help avoid the edges coming up later as it dries)

Then I used a foam brush to brush a layer of matte mod podge on the front to give a more.. textured? look.  Just so it blended the paper and canvas material to look a little more normal. 

(Don't mind the messy craft table)

As you can see it isn't exactly 12x12 like the canvas I put it on.  

If you look close up you notice where the picture paper starts and where to canvas meets it.

Up on the wall though its super cute.

WARNING: as you will see the first two pictures have a different length listed as well as a different birth date.  DOUBLE CHECK! I had my nephews stats written down with Abels and put the wrong info on the first one I printed out. Embarrassing..

I don't know if its everyone or just me that is obsessed with little facts about their children

especially at birth, but I love the subway stats style that is around.

I plan on making one for my sons room, as well as for my nephews christmas presents

It was easy, inexpensive and in my opinion better than a noisy walmart toy.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

SIDEWALK CHALK PAINT

  Me and little man had a very fun MLK day off together.  Our first activity of the morning was sidewalk chalk paint. I googled the recipe and its just a 1:1 ratio of cornstarch: water.  I've mixed it directly in the bowl with colors before but since I had this nifty little convenient tin this time I mixed a 1cup:1cup in a bowl, scooped the mixture into each tin cup and THEN added the colors.  It worked perfect (:  I gave him a separate brush for each color then later realized, he didn't care if he combined the colors haha he didn't care one tiny bit.  It was a fun activity and the cornstarch makes it pretty easy to just "scrape" off of clothes, but also washes off easy.  Make sure to take a picture of the final portrait to print out and keep!

WARNING: The cornstarch settles relatively quickly when it's sitting there.  So you have to make sure to mix it up, or you'll be painting with colored liquid which is just... not as cool.  Also, when you first paint with it you will think its just colored water but then it dries into chalky awesomness.

Muffin tin $1: dollar tree (love that place!)

Cornstarch $1: walmart

Foam brushes (10 pack) $1: dollar tree

Food color: I had this on hand

Kid Friendly Valentine Art

Valentines day [kid friendly] art

Now I love valentines day all holidays.  Seriously, I am a holiday freak.  If I hadn't practically killed myself with all the Christmas chaos I would have posted all 20 some odd homemade gifts I made. But one of my favorite parts about the holidays is getting to do a themed project for the grandparents (and great grands) out of state that don't get to enjoy "da boy" as much.  

 Now this is something I saw on Pinterest (Of course) by this clever blogger.  Since my recent job choice gives me weekends and holidays off (such as MLK day) I decided me and little man would have a fun one.  All you need is paint and an old toilet paper roll.  THAT'S IT! Let me explain the reasons to love this, if you don't already.  1. It's so easy my lack of an attention span 2 year old loved it.  2. It's recycled material.  Cute and something that generally goes to waste?  My kind of project.  3. This could be used for any holiday.  Perfect for valentines day? Of course, but do it with any color to fit any holiday.  Could be used on thank you cards, daddy day cards, birthday cards, you name it.  Seriously, what not to love?

Thats his lovely picture.  Seriously his talent AMAZES me, such a proud momma (;

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of his adorable self stamping away.  I made the decision to use acrylic paint so I was on close by watch.  This however, could easily be done with washable paint.

Loved this project, made one for the hubby-to-be and made 4 cards for our lovely elders.

Follow my Pinterest obsession. (: